


Irony

by DrWorm



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: 1960s, Gen, Internalized Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-31
Updated: 2011-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-28 13:35:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/308394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrWorm/pseuds/DrWorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"My sister wears a mustache,/ My brother wears a dress./ Goodness gracious, that's why I'm a mess!" Raven and Charles go to the movies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Irony

**Author's Note:**

> A response to [this prompt](http://1stclass-kink.livejournal.com/7761.html?thread=14156369#t14156369). The movie they discuss is _The Children's Hour_.

_December, 1961. Oxford, UK._

 

“That movie was so horribly depressing, Charles.” Raven looped her scarf around her neck and shook out her hair. “I don't see why we had to go to that. I think even that Nuremberg movie would have been more appealing. At least then I would have gotten to spend an hour or so looking at Max Schnell.”

“You're being frivolous.” Charles fumbled with his half empty Benson & Hedges pack while Raven looked on in disgust.

“I thought you had quit.”

“I started again,” Charles mumbled. He paused on the street to light a cigarette and then had to hurry to catch up with Raven, who was not about to stop so he could smoke. “Anyway, it was a good film.”

“It was grim, Charles. Grim.”

“It's necessary.”

“It's macabre! Poor Audrey, having to live with that the rest of her life.”

“Don't you think it's relevant?” Charles shoved both hands in his pockets and grinned humorlessly, cigarette clamped firmly in his teeth.

“Not especially.”

He pulled out a ratty pair of fingerless gloves and tugged them on, tucking them into the sleeves of his wool greatcoat. “Come now, people all full of deep dark secrets that, once shared, destroy lives? Incidentally, Audrey is only an actress and does not have to live with Shirley MacLaine's suicide hanging over her head.”

“Well, I couldn't remember the name of the character.”

“Karen.”

“Besides, we--” she turned to Charles and flashed her eyes from blue to green to brown to gold for emphasis, “--cannot help how we were born.”

Charles blew smoke into her face and sniggered as Raven recoiled and frantically fanned it away. “Such stunning irony.”

“You're being an ass.”

“Can't help it. I was born that way.” He scratched the side of his nose and then linked his left arm in her right. “But really, you didn't see yourself in that movie? Not even a bit?”

“I'm not a lesbian.”

“Ah, but what if you became one?”

She gave him a withering sidelong glance. “Don't be ridiculous.”

“Just making a point.” He took a final drag on his cigarette, dropped the butt, and ground it out with his heel, interrupting the rhythm of Raven's stride and jerking her back a step. “Would you want to kill yourself if you were?”

“If I were a lesbian, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“I don't know. I don't want to kill myself now, so I suppose not.”

“Hmm.” They walked together in silence for several blocks. As they rounded the last corner and their usual pub became visible, Charles said, “I wanted to kill myself a few years back.”

“Oh God, let's not talk about this right now.” Raven stopped and Charles stopped with her, but they didn't look at one another. “We're going to go get drinks, you'll go after some girls who won't fall for your biology lab pick-ups, and on the way home we'll sing 'Gee, Officer Krupke!' and forget half the words and wake up the landlady when we come in at midnight. We'll have fun and be normal and forget that stupid movie. Right?”

“Whatever you say, Raven.”


End file.
